


Winter Solstice

by thechibidude



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, One Shot, One-Sided Attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-27 08:11:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7610398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thechibidude/pseuds/thechibidude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teenage Tifa's musings post-Cloud's departure from Nibelheim</p>
<p>A short CloTi fic</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter Solstice

The young woman’s breath billowed out in white clouds in the freezing air, her dark hair swinging behind her like the mane of a wild horse as she ran along the mountain path. 

Had it really only been a year since Cloud left for Midgar? To Tifa Lockhart, it felt like a decade. All her friends had left town, so she spent as much time as possible on her martial arts training. She had started working as a tour guide too, showing visitors around Mt. Nibel.

In a week it would be the winter solstice festival. There would be folk-dancing, music, hot pasties, cider, stories told around a bonfire, and resolutions and promises for the new year. Couples would hold hands and trade kisses… She stumbled as her foot snagged on a rogue stone and just barely managed to keep her balance. Heart pounding, she paused to catch her breath, and pressed her hand to her forehead. Her face felt hot.

Pull yourself together, she scolded. You have to let go of that childish dream. You’re not a child. You can’t be one, not anymore.

Straightening, Tifa resumed her winding trek. She let her thoughts drift, feeling a dull ache in her chest when they landed on her mother, and that grief-fueled dash into these same mountains all those years ago. And the one who had followed her...

Sometimes she felt a pang of regret for not following him, but she always shook it off. She loved Nibelheim, her father, even the dark, craggy Nibel mountains. How could she leave this starry sky behind?

But he never even wrote. She’d sent letters, of course. Perhaps he’d forgotten all about her, working hard to achieve his dream. Tifa knew she would never forget. That night at the well, she’d asked him to be her hero. She’d meant it--in a childish, honest way.

She could never abandon that dream. It was their promise, after all.


End file.
